Have you ever been in a selling situation,
and thought to yourself there has to be a better way?
Well, there probably is, and there is a wave
of new data that is showing us what
is truly working in today's marketplace.
It's absolutely stunning, we truly live
in a very unique time in history where we finally
have empirical hard data on what is working in sales.
And the simple changes that you can make
right away can go a really long way.
In this video I'm going to show you 13 sales techniques
you must know right now, check it out.
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Number one, break the pattern with your opening.
Do you ever think about what that first couple
of seconds are really going to be like
from the perspective of your prospect?
When you get someone on the phone,
or when you sit down with someone face-to-face,
the first couple of seconds are going to dictate how
they feel about you for the entire rest of the interaction.
Yet, most salespeople aren't really thinking
about what they're saying and what they're doing
in the opening to those initial conversations.
So breaking the pattern first requires
that we understand what most salespeople are doing.
I'll give you an example with a phone call.
Most salespeople when they make
a phone call sound something like this.
Hey, George, Marc Wayshak calling, how are you today?
Now, what about that call immediately
let the prospect know that you were a salesperson?
It was the excitement, it was the enthusiasm.
It was the hey, how are you, right?
Everything is very predictable and reliable,
and that's what most salespeople are doing.
Instead, what I suggest, and the data shows,
that we need to break the pattern
with a different approach, this is brand new.
The new approach is going to sound something like this.
Hey, George, Marc Wayshak calling, how have you been?
Now, timeout for a second.
Think about the difference between those two situations.
Not only was my tonality lower,
but I used the question, how have you been?
And there's some powerful new data
that shows that when you start a conversation
with how have you been, you have about a six times higher
likelihood of actually setting
that initial face-to-face meeting.
Really powerful stuff.
Number two, tell them the reason for your call.
This builds on that first part,
which is we first have to break the pattern.
And we open with something along the lines
of how have you been, and then now
we're following up with the reason for my call is,
and then you fill in the blank, right?
Whatever the reason for your call actually is.
In most cases it's to get a sense
of what's really going on in their world.
We want to give them just a little reason.
It doesn't have to be a big explanation,
but just a basic reasoning.
Again, the data shows that we have
a two times higher likelihood of getting
through to that meeting by just
simply stating what reason for our call is.
It's getting right to the point, it's no BS.
And a buyer or a decision maker is going to appreciate that.
Number three, give them an overview
of the challenges that you're seeing right now.
Most salespeople when they start to get a prospect
on the phone go immediately into their pitch.
They start talking about all the features and benefits.
Or about their company, and how they've got
the best this or the greatest that.
But in reality your prospect doesn't care about you.
They don't care about your offering.
They don't care about your company.
All they care about are themselves.
So what we want to do is present ourself as a true expert,
as someone who really understands what's going on
in their world by giving them just a basic overview
of the challenges that you tend to be seeing.
So it might sound like this.
George, right now I'm seeing a lot of companies
that are struggling with, worried about, or concerned with.
Do any of those issues ring true to you?
So what we're doing is we're giving them a list.
Of course, you have to fill in
those challenges or frustrations with what
it is that makes sense in your world.
In my world I would talk about sales challenges.
I would talk about, you know,
salespeople not making enough calls.
Or they're not getting through to decision makers.
Or, finally, they're just not getting
a good ROI on their sales activities.
Do any of those issues ring true to you?
What I'm doing is I'm showing
that I understand what's going on.
And then engaging them in a conversation
about those key challenges.
Number four, get them to tell their story.
This is some really, really powerful new data
that basically shows that when we can get a prospect
to talk over about 100 seconds about their story
in that initial call we have a much higher likelihood
of ultimately getting that meeting.
So what we want to do is really do
everything we can to get the prospect engaged,
to start talking, to tell their story.
And by story I don't mean their life story,
but I mean the challenges that they're facing.
The frustrations that are going on,
or what they're looking to accomplish.
Whatever it is to get them into the conversation
in a way that's really focused on them.
And when you do that, now you're going
to be much more likely to ultimately
get that meeting, and finally get that sale.
Number five, understand the upside.
Now, most salespeople really miss this step,
and the upside is simply this.
We need to first, of course, engage them
in a conversation about what are their challenges.
Now you've got them talking about their challenges.
They're starting to see value,
but the key word is they're starting to see value.
There's no tangible value until it's actually
been stated what solving those challenges
actually means to them in dollars.
Imagine you're talking to a prospect,
and they're talking about their challenges.
Let's say you're in a business to business space.
So they're talking about their business challenges
that pertain to whatever it is that you solve.
And they go on about, you know, this and that.
And then we tried to do this, and it just hasn't worked.
And then you say something like,
George, if you are able to solve this challenge,
what would it mean to the organization?
Now we're starting to get them
to paint a picture of what it means.
In fact, if you want to be really hardcore,
if you want to be really ninja, get them
to articulate a specific dollar amount.
So, George, if you were able to solve
these sales-related challenges,
what could it mean in additional revenue
to the organization, or in additional
profitability to the organization?
That is a question that I ask every single
prospect that I ever sit in front of.
And what always happens is they give me really big numbers.
So when they tell me that, yeah,
if we were able to solve these challenges,
and if we were able to solve them,
it will mean an additional $10 million in revenue,
suddenly a half a million dollar consulting contract
doesn't seem like a lot of money.
Really, really powerful stuff.
Number six, make it personal.
So often we want to focus on
the business side of the challenge.
And that makes a lot of sense, but the data shows,
and psychology has taught us, that every single decision,
every single buying decision,
has some personal meaning behind it.
It has some personal objective behind that decision.
So what we want to do is go from
the business objective to the personal objective.
You might want to say something that would sound like this.
George, I really appreciate what
you've shared with me so far.
But behind every business objective is a personal objective.
What would it mean to you if we were
able to solve these challenges?
What you're going to find is if you have
a strong connection, if you've built a strong relationship
throughout this conversation, what they're going to do
is open up about how this is really affecting them.
They're gonna say things like, well, you know what,
if I don't solve this I could be out looking for a job.
Or this really matters, so that way
I can help pay for my kid's college.
Whatever it is, right, I mean,
it could be a slew of different reasons.
But what we want to do is get to that personal motivation.
You get there, and now you've created so much value.
By the way, you haven't said anything about this.
What you've done is gotten them to tell you.
Number seven, budget is everything.
We need to have that budget conversation.
And what the data shows is that most people
are having some kind of a pricing
or a budget conversation when they're in sales.
Of course, you have to at some point talk about price.
But what top performers are doing that really separates them
from everyone else is, first of all,
they're having the conversation later in the conversation.
So they're talking about budget
later on in the buying process.
Whereas a lot of average performers typically start talking
about price early on in the conversation.
Secondly, what we want to do is make sure that we're not
just having a pricing conversation,
but a budget conversation.
Any salesperson can say, you know what George,
this is going to cost $100,000.
Real easy, you could train a monkey to do that.
But what takes skill is having
that conversation around budget.
Having the conversation where,
you know what George, you told me already
that the challenges that we've discussed
if you were able to solve them would mean
about $10 million in additional revenue to the organization.
What kind of a budget do you think you might be able
to pull together in order to solve these challenges?
Now, this person may say, well,
you know what I'm not really sure yet, that's fine.
Now you're going to say something
along the lines of, well, totally makes sense.
Typically, a project like this is going to range
anywhere from about 300,000 to 700,000.
Where on that spectrum could you see yourself fitting?
Now what you're doing is you're throwing out
some numbers, but it's a really wide range.
And you're getting them to pick the budget.
Really important distinction, much more
important than just throwing out a price.
What we're doing is we're giving it
that range, budget is everything.
Number eight, understand their decision-making process.
The data shows that one of the biggest complaints
that prospects have about salespeople
in general is that they did not take the time
to truly understand their organization's
decision-making and buying process.
So as a result a sale that could've
otherwise happened didn't happen.
Or maybe was set back and was certainly risked.
This is one of those situations in selling
where it really has nothing to do with your abilities
of persuasion or creating value.
It's just asking the questions about understanding
their decision-making process.
Simple questions like, George, could you walk me through.
What's a typical decision like this
look like at your organization?
Understanding that information,
who's involved, what it looks like,
how they go about doing it, is going to make you
so much stronger than ever before.
Number nine, clear and scheduled next steps.
There is nothing more sad to me than
to watch a salesperson do everything right.
And then at the end of a conversation
or at the end of a meeting just say, hey, would it be okay
if I followed up with you sometime next week?
And the prospect says sure, and then they leave
with this wishy-washy unclear next step.
It's devastating because what it's doing is it's creating
so much opportunity for that sale to fall apart.
In fact, what we learn is that top performers
are significantly more likely to spend
a very clear portion of the end of any conversation
discussing nothing but next steps.
So make sure that at the end of every conversation
with a prospect you are getting
a clear and scheduled next step.
And by scheduled I mean literally
it's going into their calendar.
They're going to get a calendar invite
from you that they're going to accept.
And you are now in their calendar.
Number 10, only present to their challenges.
Have you ever been in a selling situation where
you're giving a presentation, and you're feeling great,
you're feeling like, man, this is going awesome.
And then you say, you know what, but one last thing I want
to show you that we can do for you.
And then you go off on that little tangent.
And then suddenly the look on
their face just changes a little bit.
And they say, oh, well, yeah we don't really need that.
And then, suddenly, for the rest
of the conversation you're starting to think,
you know what, did I just hurt that sale?
The answer, of course, is that
you did, you did hurt that sale.
We've all been there, so this is certainly not something
that any of us haven't done before.
But the reality is that we only want to be presenting
the solutions to their challenges, nothing more.
Keep that presentation as short as possible.
All you're trying to do in that presentation is make sure
that you demonstrate that you can solve those challenges.
There doesn't have to be this huge magnificent presentation.
It's simply going through the checklist
of here are the challenges that you've mentioned,
and here's how we're going to solve each
and every one of those challenges.
You do that, you are going to show the buyer
that you understand them better than any other salesperson
that they've ever dealt with ever.
Number 11, keep it under 60 seconds.
Now, this one may seem a little unclear,
and let me explain what it means.
Some recent data came out that showed
that top performers who close sales almost never
in a presentation go more than 72 seconds
without reengaging the prospect in that conversation.
What that means is that they're never going on
with these very long monologues.
In fact the same data, and this all comes
from an organization called gong.io,
which I love, and I speak very highly of.
And I'll be sure to link in this article.
Gong.io also showed in this same piece of data
that no closing presentation had any period
where they went more than about 100 seconds before
there was some type of a switch in who the speaker was.
So what this tells us is that
prospects are losing their interest.
They're losing engagement when we go
on for too long in that presentation.
We've all been there, right?
We've all had that long monologue
where we just go on, and on, and on.
And we kind of lose track of where we are.
So what we have to do is make sure
that we're never going for more than 60 seconds
before we're reengaging them back into the conversation.
We're getting them to buy into
this conversation to share their thoughts.
Now, you're thinking to yourself, well, how do I do that?
And that leads us to number 12, feedback loops.
Now, a feedback loop is simply this.
When you're in the middle of a presentation,
or by the way at any point in a sale, and you are talking
for some type of an extended period of time.
And you're starting to see their eyes wander,
or you're thinking I want to make sure
that they're on the same page with me.
What you're going to do is you're going
to use a feedback loop to pull them back in.
And a feedback loop sounds something like this.
George, does that make sense?
Or, before we go any further I just want to make sure,
are we on the same page still?
What you're going to do is these little tiny questions
are going to pull them back into the conversation.
And you're giving them an opportunity to provide feedback
on how they feel about what you just said.
Feedback loops pull them back in, does that make sense?
See what I did there?
Number 13, get bored of using the same process
over and over, then do it again.
(laughs) Now you're probably thinking,
what is this guy talking about, get bored?
That's exactly right, the best
salespeople are highly systematic.
It's not about getting creative in the sales process.
It's about using the same exact system over,
and over, and over, and over again.
And then starting it over, and doing it again
with the same person, or with a different person.
Use the same exact process.
Make sure that the process is an effective process driven
by what actually works, and not just some guy's opinions.
But use that process, and follow it to the T,
and do it over, and over, and over again.
Get all of your creative needs met
in some marketing brochure that you put together.
Or when you go home and you draw a painting.
Sales is about following a systematic process.
If you do that you are going to become
better, and better, and better.
Because you're going to be using the same exact process.
And you will continue to slowly but surely refine
that process by not just trying this, then trying that,
and going all over the place, but really staying on track.
Use that same process over and over again.
So, there are 13 sales techniques
that you must know right now.
I want to hear from you, which of these
ideas did you find most useful?
Be sure to share below in the comments section
to get involved in the conversation.
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